


we all float

by eldritchbee



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, IT - Stephen King
Genre: Ableism, Alternate Universe, Body Horror, Bullying, Clowns, Drowning, Horror, Nightmares, greyscale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 04:53:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19221985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eldritchbee/pseuds/eldritchbee
Summary: An AU where Patchface is IT. Shireen has nightmares about the sea, and the moon speaks to her.Book canon ASOIAF only.





	we all float

 

_"Under the sea the sea, the fish eat us. I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”_

 

Looking at yourself in the mirror, you see what you’ve always seen. Mother’s ears and father’s thick, coarse hair and half of your face ravaged and dead. 

When you were little, you would scratch at it. Scratch and scratch until your nails ached and your skin bled hoping that if you scratched deep enough you would reveal something pretty. Smooth skin, shining, and more than that. Scratch hard enough and you can rip off your whole face, your hair and your ears, and underneath it all you’ll be pretty like the ladies in court. Your father put a stop to that. Two months of having to wear thick gloves in the summer put a stop to that for what he thought would be forever.

 

***

He never has to tell you about the sea. Somehow you just know. Somehow, he knows you know, and you wonder if he’s the one who speaks from the moon. Whispering words in your ear about your grandparents, dead and gone. The words from the moon call out to you. Whisper that a ship won’t be coming back, and one day you’ll join.

Whispering for you to join them now.

_It’ll be such fun, Shireen._

_We all float down here._  

 

***

The day that Edric is set to leave, he’s doing that thing again, acting like he lost his brain in the sea. The way he acts around everyone but you. It’s so often that you’re with others and so rare you’re alone that you almost believe his farce. Those dreams about the moon and the sea are just that, dreams. But sometimes he shows his face, as soft Patchface dances around he grows teeth.

He sings of sinking ships.

He sings of bloated bodies. Diseased with the stuff from nightmares.

_“We all float down there, oh, oh, we all float.”_

  
After that, you start scratching again. Your father is not around to stop you, and your mother doesn’t know how.

 

***

Sometimes, his fingers stroke the dry, cracked skin on your face. Your feelings are conflicted. A part of you wants to cry and rip away. Find your daddy, find your mommy, find the red lady who scares you in a different way.

 

And then another, some secret part of you wants him to rip it off. You think, you know he could. You want to ask him, “Why not?” It doesn’t matter how much you bleed.

He gives the other children nightmares. Back on Dragonstone you remember the other children. One boy, one who teased you for your face, had woken up every night for a month in a sweat. His parents claimed he screamed so loudly, they would run into his chamber, truly believing someone was truly tearing him apart. A month, and the very next day he was found washed on shore. (That, you remember, was when the moon first started to visit.)

So, why not?

But when you turn to look, your heart will stop. No longer the soft fool with the patched face, but something bigger. Something you can’t understand. With sharp teeth and a rotting scent like dead fish.

And then you scream like something’s tearing you apart.

You’re tearing yourself apart. Scratching and peeling and pulling at the skin on your face. Raking your eye bloody and twisting on the ground (it’s gone, but you still smell rot and fish).

When you stand to look at the damage done, it’s gone. No more gray, a smooth face beneath.

Look again and he’s behind the mirror. The fool again but with sharp pointed teeth. Like a dragon, you think.  _Like a monster._

_“Won’t you join me under the sea? Oh, oh, Shireen, we’ll have such fun! We all float down here.”_ He’ll reach out to take the torn dead skin that is his prize. You know what happens next. You know, and you’ll scream until you pass out and wake up once more safe in your bed.

And in the mirror, you see what you’ve always seen. Mother’s ears and father’s thick, coarse hair and half of your face ravaged and dead. 

Another dream where they took your face. Another dream of the moon.

_One day you’ll float._

**Author's Note:**

> I literally wrote this in 2012. I've changed nothing about it. Original found at link below.  
> https://astormofsansasmoved-blog.tumblr.com/post/19022852470/we-all-float-an-au-where-patchface-is-it
> 
> In this house the television show Game of Thrones never existed.


End file.
